


A Lasting Treasure

by Browneyesparker



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friendship, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-07 02:30:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browneyesparker/pseuds/Browneyesparker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Promise me that you’ll still look at me the same way tomorrow Phil. That you’ll still. . . that you’ll still love me when everything’s back to normal and I’m the tough as nail’s agent again.” she whispered. Coulson/May. AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_I’d like to know that your love is love that I can be sure of._

He almost didn’t recognize her with her hair pulled away from her face and the pretty red party dress she was wearing. Her sudden transformation and the songs that his mother used to listen to playing in the background made him realize that she could be more than just a partner. . . more  than just a friend. And then, she was giving him _the_ look and brought him crashing back to earth. He hurried over to the bar to meet her, managing not to stumble over his words as he greeted her.

“Hello May,” he said, smiling at her.

“Coulson,” she replied as she took a sip of her white wine and eyed him wearily. “What took you so long to get over here?”

“I just got here,” Coulson lied.

“Phil Coulson, don’t you lie to me!” May said. “I saw you standing near the hostess table! You were looking at me like you’ve never seen a girl before.”

Coulson pushed his thick glasses up on his face. “I’ve seen plenty of girls before. They just haven’t looked nearly as pretty as you do in a dress.”

May blushed, but a second later the pleasing pink flush faded and she had reached out and grabbed his hands, placing them in his lap. “Coulson, don’t push your glasses up on your nose like that,” she said.

“I’ve always pushed my glasses up like that though—”

“Well, it’s time to start making some new habits,” May told him, smiling the first genuine smile that he’d ever seen from her. “Some attractive ones—”

“May,” Phil interjected, lowering his voice. “Don’t look now, but our subjects just entered the restaurant—”

May jumped up off her chair and grabbed his hand, dragging him to the dance floor. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck, starting a slow dance with him that to the uninformed passerby made them look like a couple that was out on a date. Her hand found his back and she started to rub circles around it.

He closed his eyes and tried to tell himself that it was all pretended. That it was all for a mission, he tried to ignore the fact that she felt _so_ good in his arms or that he had denied an attraction to her since the first moment that they had met. He tried to block out her scent, tried to pretend that he wasn’t imagining them in half-a-dozen scenarios that didn’t have anything to do with work.

The song ended and she pulled away from him, her eyes bore straight into his and for one distinct moment, he thought that she could see everything that he was thinking. She took him by surprise when she kissed him. For a second, he told himself that she was trying not to blow their cover, but there was something so real about it that he knew he was just fooling himself.

After a sweet, chaste second May pulled away and whispered, “Come to my room tonight after we put these suckers on ice.”

Coulson nodded wordlessly, his pointer finger finding the bridge of his glasses to push them up on his face. But then he stopped, thinking about what May had said earlier. Maybe, he reflected, it _was_ time to start making some more attractive habits.

**.**

May dimmed the lights and then took his glasses off, placing them on the nightstand by her bed and then leaning in to kiss him. “Promise me that you’ll still look at me the same way tomorrow Phil. That you’ll still. . . that you’ll still love me when everything’s back to normal and I’m the tough as nail’s agent again.” she whispered.

“I promise,” Coulson repeated, his voice gentle as he leaned in to kiss her as he freed her hair from its ponytail and dropped the holder on the floor. “That’s how I loved you first.”

May closed her eyes and kissed him back, allowing him to lower her onto the bed as she pulled off his tie.

For a moment, she felt complete.

**.**

May jerked away from Ward suddenly and shook her head as she zipped up her suit. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this. Not right now. I’m sorry.”

“This is the third time this week,” Ward replied. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine,” May answered absent-mindedly as she ran her fingers through her hair. “Just fine. . .”

“I don’t think so,” Ward said. “It’s Coulson, isn’t it? You haven’t been the same since he got back. Did you two ever—”

“A few times,” May answered, shaking her head. “It was a long time ago. It isn’t any of your business Ward!”

Ward shrugged and sat up. “You should tell him.”

May gave him a hard stare. “Tell him _what_ exactly?” she asked sharply.

“That you still love him,” Ward replied, putting his shoes back on.

“I don’t—”

“You do,” Ward said. “You just didn’t know it until you thought you’d lost him. Which is fine, we both knew when we started that _this_ wasn’t more than a way to burn off the extra energy and stress. It was fun while it lasted but everybody deserves to be with the person they love—”

May shook her head. “He doesn’t, not really. I closed that door a long time ago. . .”

Ward came over to her and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Well, you’ll never know until you say something. Say something. Okay?”

“That’s funny coming from you. . .”

“Go,” Ward interjected, pointing to the door. “Go _now_.”

And against May’s better judgment, she went.

**.**

She wiped her hands on her thighs and then knocked on his door. After what seemed like an eternity, he opened the door and smiled at her.

“May, what are you doing here?” He asked, smiling at her.

She swallowed hard and then gave him half a smile, cursing herself for acting like a teenage girl with her first crush. “I need to tell you something.”

**TBC. . .**

**.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 When She Came Back**

The closer they got, the more distant she became. Some days he was certain that he’d wake up and she’d be gone. Gone from his life and from S.H.I.E.L.D, he had known it would be a risk to get involved with her. That the minute things got too serious, she would run scared.

But she stayed and even after things had died down between them, he persisted on staying in _her_ life. Because even though things hadn’t worked out between them, he still wanted to be friends with her. He still liked her even though things hadn’t worked out between them. And he couldn’t blame her for wanting to put an end to things.

Maybe it had been too much, too fast. Maybe they had been too brilliant. Heck, _he_ had even been scared, never in his whole life had he encountered anybody as intense as Melinda May or his feelings for her. And after he had had it, he didn’t think he’d ever encounter something like it again.

So, he continued to be her friend. He watched her leave with countless amounts of guys and listened to her complain about one date after another. When they were finally separated, they kept in touch with weekly phone calls and letters, keeping each other updated on the respective lives that way. They tried to meet every so often when they weren’t too busy with missions and life, and when he wasn’t too busy doing Director Fury’s bidding.

In the early days, they’d still sleep together sometimes. Every single time it happened, they’d both vow it wouldn’t _ever_ happen again. But when they reunited, the old attraction between them would spark and they’d be right back to where they started from. Kissing each other like their lives depended on it, falling into bed together. The next morning, they would wake up begging each other’s forgiveness and swearing that it wouldn’t ever happen again.

Then they got older and keeping their hands off of each other got a little easier. Sometimes, they’d spend a night together, but they stopped apologizing for it. They were two consenting adults; there wasn’t anything to be sorry about.

Eventually, they stopped sleeping together even though there was still an insane attraction fueling their relationship. They were both learning to be content with the direction their relationship was taking when New York happened, and they were brought together again.

**.**

_Present Day_

“Come on in,” Coulson said, ushering her into his room. He closed the door behind them and sat down on his bed. “Is everything okay Melinda?”

May gave him half-a-smile. “You haven’t called me Melinda in years. Not since the last time that we. . . well, that was a long time ago, wasn’t it?”

“I guess so,” Coulson answered indulgently, even though the truth was he didn’t have any idea what she was talking about.

May squared her shoulders; she wasn’t going to dwell on the past. She would just keep looking forward and hope that he felt the same way about her, that he wouldn’t hold her prior mistakes against her. Not when she was finally ready to accept that she had loved him ever since she was a young woman and that she probably would always love him. She walked towards his bed and then sat down next to him, she opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out, the speech she had rehearsed so carefully on her way over to his room disappeared completely.

So, she kissed him.

“We-we promised we weren’t going to do this again,” Coulson whispered when she had pulled away.

“I’m not trying to break any promises. We’re not going to do anything,  not tonight. Not if you don’t want to. I just wanted you to know. . .” May trailed off, the words getting stuck in her throat again. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes, willing herself to say the words she should have said a long time ago. “I just wanted you to know I love you.”

Coulson’s eyes widened slightly. “What?”

“I love you,” she replied bravely, the phrase fell from her lips easier this time. “I love you! I love you—”

He put a finger to her lips. “I heard you; you don’t have to keep saying it.”

May shook her head and took his hand from her mouth, entwining their fingers. “But I do, I _do_ have to say it. I have to make up for lost time.”

“Lost time?” Coulson repeated.

“Lost time,” May answered. “Oh, if you only knew how long I’ve loved you.”

Coulson smiled at her. “If only _you_ knew how long I’ve loved _you_ ,” he replied.

May kissed him again, sighing against his lips when he returned her kiss. She pulled away and studied him. “But you loved me this long. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“I knew if I did, I’d just scare you away. And I would have rather had you in my life and suffered in silence then tell you how I feel and never see you again.”

“Were you going to just ‘suffer’ in silence for our whole entire lives?”

Coulson nodded. “If I had to, _yes_ ,I was going to. Just being friends with you was good enough for me.”

May smiled and shook her head, looking at him affectionately. “I can’t believe you did that just for _me_.”

Coulson kissed her this time, falling easily into the patterns that they had developed years ago. Rejoicing that she still tasted just the way he remembered, that she still hadn’t changed her perfume or shampoo since the first (and the last) night they had spent together. He closed his eyes and kissed her like a starving man, he kissed her like a man kissed his lover after they’d been apart for a long period of time, and he kissed her like he was finally home.

After a few seconds had passed, he looked at her for confirmation. She read the silent message in his eyes and then she nodded. He laid her down and stopped kissing her long enough to take a mental picture of the way she looked at that very moment lying in his bed, her hair following around his pillow. . . her lips, swollen with his kisses.

“Phil,” she whispered, her voice sounded very much like the first night they had spent together.

“Yes?”

“Promise me, promise me that you’ll still love me tomorrow.”

“I promise,” Coulson whispered.

May closed her eyes and released a deep breath, smiling as she loosened his tie and rose to meet him with a languid kiss. “Thank you.”

He caught her hands in his. “Promise _me_ , promise me that you’ll still love me tomorrow.”

“I promise,” May said sincerely, wrapping her arms around him and just holding him. He collapsed against her, all his previous plans for them forgotten for the time being.

Still, for the first time in a long time, they both felt complete.

**_The End_**


End file.
